The world’s first-post-car real estate developer, Culdesac, today announced tenant interest is above projections at this time. Culdesac has secured its waitlist for Phase 1 with 136 people (a waitlist for 21% of its total rental units) indicating strong demand for the car-free neighborhood and lifestyle Culdesac Tempe community will offer. Future residents began signing up in mid-January 2020 and Culdesac’s waitlist was filled during the first week of April 2020.
Planned to open in 2021, Culdesac is a $140 million project with 636 residential units, 24,000-square-feet of retail and 35,000-square feet of amenities on 16 acres. In typical developments, the parking lots often dictate the design—and without this constraint, Culdesac Tempe’s car-free neighborhood is able to offer three times the average amount of green space, along with friendly courtyards and community spaces, contributing to a walkable lifestyle. See a virtual reality tour of the community.
Culdesac is appealing to residents all over the country. The national waitlist is comprised of 40% of people outside of Arizona. Young professionals make up most of the waitlist. Remote workers and retirees/empty nesters are also on the waitlist for the car-free neighborhood.
For 28-year-old Emmanuel Onate, who placed a $100 deposit to be on the waitlist, Culdesac reminds him of European villages where cars are not a necessity. He enjoyed walking, and not driving, while studying abroad in Spain and Portugal during college. He is also looking forward to the sense of community and place at Culdesac where he envisions professionals spending their time socializing and networking together.
“I love that they are thinking about having community events. Sometimes people need a push to get out and meet other people,” said Onate, who currently lives in Ahwatukee.
Onate owns a business and plans to operate his business at Culdesac by taking advantage of Culdesac’s coworking spaces.
Blake Umlauf, 23, is the co-founder of a Gen-Z E-commerce agency. He likes Culdesac Tempe’s conveniences for people who work from home.
“Culdesac is a community built for remote work,” said Umlauf, who currently lives in Bentonville, Arkansas and placed a deposit at Culdesac.
The development is centered around the mobility needs of residents, with on-site light rail station, dedicated rideshare pick-up zones, on-site scooters, bikes, and on-site carshares for weekend trips. In addition, Culdesac will have extensive on-site retail, including a 2,600-square-foot fast casual restaurant, 3,500-square-foot market hall, a 9,800-square-foot co-working, café and retail building, a 4,400-square-foot grocery building and a 4,500-square-foot personal services/general retail building. Fundamentally a mixed-use project, all of Culdesac’s retail buildings (except the restaurant building) will have residential apartments on top.
After announcing plans for its development in November 2019, Culdesac quickly generated significant interest with a list of nearly 2,000 people in only three weeks. Culdesac cultivated the initial interest by calling prospective residents, and hosting meet-ups at local Tempe retail spots to share their innovative virtual reality tour. Overall, more than 3,000 people have indicated interest in living at Culdesac Tempe with more than 136 providing refundable waitlist deposits.
“Culdesac is thrilled our first community is received with such enthusiasm. The waitlist interest demonstrates the strong desire for a car-free lifestyle,” said Lavanya Sunder, general manager of Culdesac. “One of the most exciting things has been hearing from founding residents that Culdesac Tempe is their dream community.”
“Culdesac will offer residents a lifestyle that is forward thinking,” said Ryan Johnson, co-founder and CEO of Culdesac. “People want to feel like they live in a park and have built-in social opportunities in their community.”
The diverse value proposition of Culdesac Tempe appeals to a wide variety of people including young professionals, remote workers, retirees/empty nesters and students. Young professionals who currently work near downtown Tempe and want to commute via bike and light rail have signed up for the waitlist. In addition, many remote workers, interested in the on-site coworking space, bookable office suites, and site-wide high-speed internet are on the waitlist. Empty nesters/retirees who like the convenience of on-site retail amenities and integrated delivery services are also on the waitlist. Most waitlist members have signed up for 1 bedroom units.
Joining the waitlist gives future residents the opportunity for early unit selection during the leasing process later this year. They also receive information about the community’s progress, opportunities to get to know their future neighbors, exclusive product testing and community events (in-person and virtual).
Gisela von Dran, 76, is drawn to move to the car-free neighborhood from Syracuse, New York, because she will live with people of all ages – young professionals, families with children and people her age. She examined active adult communities in several places in the country but prefers to live in a multi-generational community.
“There is a certain energy when you have people of all ages coming together. That is one of the aspects I really like about Culdesac,” said von Dran, who placed a waitlist deposit.
She also likes Culdesac’s proximity to light rail and access to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, which will make traveling easy. She is looking forward to the lifestyle Culdesac has to offer and envisions herself walking to the coffee shop for fresh coffee and bagels in the morning. The ASU alumna and retired Syracuse University professor also likes Culdesac for its location in a college town.
“ASU is such an innovative, lively, spirited university it really makes me happy to be connected to it,” von Dran said.
To learn more visit www.culdesac.com
